Officially it has been a little over a year since Hurricane Harvey impacted my family. It has honestly been a long year with insurance, schools, growing up, growing older, staying focused, and self-care. Unfortunately on the list of life ingredients self-care has been one of my last items. My avoidance of self-care is not intentional but an unfortunate truth.

Self-care is incredibly important, and I am easily swayed to do something else besides taking care of myself. The combination of starting graduate school and being displaced by Hurricane Harvey all in the same week was never something I planned. However, I continue to look at the situation as a learning opportunity rather than a barrier to success in both my degree and my creative life.

What I have learned most is that I love research. I am presently working on my clinical masters of social work and have found creativity to be thriving throughout this journey. Art therapy, play therapy, creative writing, and even research have creativity pouring from its veins. There is creativity in how I work with clients, how I speak to someone else’s truth and autonomy, and how I can be an agent of change.

My YouTube videos have always been a lot of fun to create and share. My original intent was to share what I create with my kids. My intention has never changed, and I plan to do more videos but with a slight modification. I want to share what I have learned about self-reflection and purpose when creating art. The importance of art has less to do with the “how” and more to do with the “why” I am creating art. This new direction is my self-care plan.

I encourage everyone to reflect on what they genuinely love to do and find a way to make that an essential part of your day. Find what makes the heart happy and when fear wells up, look into the eyes of the beast and create something that fear has no choice but to take pause and smile.

The image above is a look into my watercolor journal. I play a lot with color and love to see how colors will work together much like music works together. There is so much you can do with watercolor!

I have been asked a few times about using Tempera paint as a substitute for acrylic pouring. As far as I can recall I had a grandmother asking if it was possible to use this type of paint so she could show her grandchildren. First I have to say it is awesome showing kids how to make brave art. Children have no interest in selling their art and do this for themselves and not for “Likes.” In some ways, it is much like intuitive painting. If only we could all go through life with childlike faith, childlike curiosity and childlike love.

Since this is really for kids and not intended to be archival, I used tempura paints and regular school glue. Both are washable and safe to handle. Tempera paint is not much different from acrylic except it uses calcium carbonate as a binder and does not dry into plastic. Calcium Carbonate is pretty much found in eggs, snail shells and various other organic minerals. It is sometimes referred to as Egg Tempera and was used long before acrylics. There are some permanent tempera paints, but I am using a student grade tempera from Chroma. Chroma has a bunch of different types and recently came out with a Kids Chroma Tempera specifically for schools and kids.

What I found is that these act similar to the craft style paints. Of course, the school glue is thicker and does not have a long-term archival property, but again, this is for fun and not for sale. Based on the number of different types of tempera paints available I am sure you could get different results, but I hope you give this a try with a little one in your life! So get your kids, get your paints and get your wet towels because this is tons of fun!

Here is the recipe I used. (Please note, this is not exact, and I encourage you to experiment beyond just a recipe).

1 part Paint

1 part School Glue

A splash of alcohol

A splash of water

The alcohol will help with making cells and the water will help thin everything down some. Once you get it the right constancy your can do a swipe, pour whatever you like. Keep in mind, the Chroma Tempera paints actually use pigment so specific gravity does make a difference.

Recently I have been asked to give my opinion on what is considered art and what is not. This conversation was specifically geared to those that enjoy acrylic pouring. Hopefully this video will show where I stand and what is really important about creativity. We all have a responsibility to be kind in this world especially when our children mirror our own behavior. Feel free to share the kindness of Zoe as much as you want.

Thank you Zoe for being so incredibly inspirational.

You can support our YouTube channel by visiting our Etsy shop where we have art created in these videos available for sale. https://www.etsy.com/shop/DannyClarkArt

For my larger pieces please contact us for details on availability and pricing.

I never lived in Corpus Christi but it is a place I have always called home. My entire family is from there so by proxy I am essentially from Corpus. For the last 40 years I have visited this little town to see uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents. I have fished its waters, hunted its lands, started cook-off competitions, built fences and driven dignitaries in parades.

I have not been to Corpus in a year. That was about the time my last grandparent passed away. This weekend I was in Corpus and realized how short my time there has been. I also felt that I probably won’t be back for a very long time. Almost all of my family has moved away or died. The areas of town that I frequented are also in decline with closed shops, new construction and just a tiredness you see in small communities along Texas roads.

This weekend has been hard for me. I visited more family at the cemetery than at homes. I miss playing chess and drinking scotch with Daddy Clark. I miss the cold peppermints in my GiGi’s freezer. I miss my friends that would laugh so hard we would cry and my family that always wanted to know what I have been doing in Houston. Most of all I missed the hugs.

I have a lot to thank for the people that helped me grow up. I guess that is what makes me so sad now. Those people are gone and I felt really alone in that crystal city by the bay.